Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Kenny Conversation | Hailie Deegan Explains Why She Left NASCAR

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Kenny Conversation | Hailie Deegan Explains Why She Left NASCAR · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  I can't tell you how many nights, like, I went, flew back
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  on the team planes, like wanting to just break down crying.
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  And I'm not a crier, Like, I'm a pissed off crier.
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  Like, if I'm crying, it's 'cause I'm mad.
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  Yeah. Like how many nights I just
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  wanted to like beat my head against the wall, like didn't
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  know what to do 'cause like stuff that was out of my
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  control. It's the Kenny Wallace
• 0:22
  conversation brought. To you by Jags.
• 0:26
  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Kenny.
• 0:28
  Conversation brought to you by Jags, the leader in high
• 0:33
  performance aftermarket car parts.
• 0:35
  Remember to go to jags.com for everything you need to fix your
• 0:39
  hot rod up. And they are telling me they
• 0:42
  have truck parts and Jeep parts in stock right now.
• 0:46
  All right, deep breath everybody.
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  There she is. Haley Deegan.
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  Haley, how are you doing? I'm doing great.
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  You know what? You said something right before
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  we went on air that made me really happy and I just want
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  everybody to know it. You wouldn't pick your grandma
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  and grandpa up from the airport just now.
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  You got a great family there, don't you?
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  Yes, I do. I'm really close to my
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  grandparents. They moved down to North
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  Carolina not too long ago. So definitely nice to have some
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  family around because moving to North Carolina, I was like on my
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  own. There was like none of my other
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  family here. Wow, that is awesome.
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  And of course, how you pay attention to your dad, your
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  mother, She's good on Instagram and.
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  Whatever, she's funny and my mom's funny.
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  It's all in the family. So sometimes the sometimes the
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  the students teach the teachers. And I think, I think you, you've
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  helped your family be even better, even though they've
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  taught you what, what you've been up to.
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  So, all right, well, listen, this is catching up with Haley
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  Deegan. I want to be clear about that.
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  If you want to see a really long version, go back through the
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  Kenny conversation. And Haley and myself had a
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  really long 10 a year or so ago. But Haley, a lot has happened
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  since then. You were in the NASCAR Xfinity
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  Series. You just left the NASCAR Xfinity
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  Series and you have just announced last week you are
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  running in a IndyCar NXT, which is the feeder series to the
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  Indianapolis 500. So I guess if you do good here,
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  you could be in the Indy 500. Is is that, is that, is that
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  something that you're looking at?
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  Yeah. So pretty much like there's
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  certain ranks to it, like there's it starts out in like
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  the USFUSF Pro and then it goes Indy next and then it goes
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  IndyCar. And so the series that I'm in is
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  kind of like the Xfinity Series of IndyCar.
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  Right. As a race car driver, I want to
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  know what you feel as a difference.
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  You know, I admire you because you, you do it all.
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  I, I follow you. You're, you know, you're racing
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  dirt cars, you're on asphalt, you're jumping jumps, you're
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  doing it all. So everything you've done, what
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  did you notice right away about driving that Indy NXT car that
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  that was different? I think the biggest thing for me
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  just difference wise, not necessarily that was I liked it
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  or disliked it was the fact that you don't have a windshield.
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  Like when you when you're in a stock car, everything is so
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  still when you're on like superspeedways, I swear you
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  could drop like there could be the tiniest speck in the air and
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  it like falls right down. So there's no air movement in
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  the car. And I think that was a big
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  change for me going to the open wheel stuff is like there is so
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  much wind on you which you never get like warm.
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  I guess that's the nice part. And then it pulls your helmet up
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  quite a bit, which you have to put like all these different
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  pieces on your helmet to keep it pushed down.
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  Because that was one of my biggest.
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  I tested an F3 car and when I was doing that, I had my NASCAR
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  helmet. I didn't know like I was blowing
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  off your. Head and.
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  I'm going to get a new helmet to test this car.
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  It's just a test. And went out there and like, my
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  helmet's rising up on the straightways and like, the
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  little chin strap is like strangling me.
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  And I'm like, you know what? I probably need that like
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  IndyCar specific helmet now. That is awesome.
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  You know, that's really some some interesting news.
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  I mean, you know, we hear about it, but the way you explained it
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  really good. Thank you for telling us that.
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  OK, so you've joined HMD. Tell us a little bit about this
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  team. I've watched a lot of your
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  interviews, but you know everybody here on Kenny
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  conversation, they might not know about HMD.
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  Yeah, so there's a bunch of different teams in the indie
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  next series. HMD is a super quality team.
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  They've won a few championships in the past.
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  Their last championship was not last season, the season before.
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  And they've had great drivers move through their team up to
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  the IndyCar rinks. And so they're really, they know
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  how to work with drivers and develop drivers.
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  And I think the biggest selling point for me on HMD was the fact
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  that I'd have so many teammates. And for me the data side of
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  things is unreal. Like compared to NASCAR, SMT and
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  NASCAR is kind of not great. And so it's it's definitely a
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  new thing having all that data to go off of all the sensors
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  everywhere tell you your exact wheel input, like, oh, I'm not
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  slipping the tire yet. I see that this person's turning
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  a little bit more in this corner.
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  I could turn a little bit more and the car will still react
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  good. And so I think having so many
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  teammates to reference off of is a huge, huge point for me.
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  And they definitely do a great job.
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  Their shop is beautiful. Like watching presentation, like
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  their presentation was very good going into their shop for the
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  first time, which was was probably about a month ago.
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  And I'm checking it out like it's a it's massive shop, full
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  gym inside kitchen. They have an eye racing
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  simulator there a bunch of offices for engineers.
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  Like it was like the most spotless, beautiful shop I've
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  ever seen. I think I might have had a fat
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  finger when I wrote this down. Of course I do my notes.
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  So did you say that team is HMB as in Bob?
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  D. D So I did say it right, OK.
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  I. Was scared.
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  I'm like you're all. Good, it happens.
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  OK, so I created a little controversy in a good way.
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  I do want to talk about this and stay on course with the IndyCar
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  and I'm going to say this and I just want you to respond.
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  I said Hayley Diggins move to IndyCar NXT is a good one
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  because they can't record as easy.
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  I watched it. I saw it.
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  OK, yeah. So you know, when I when I had a
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  conversation with your father and the boy, it was a good one.
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  He he had said to me, he said, Kenny, why do you think the boys
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  get away with wrecking, you know, Haley and I said, well,
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  they're you know, they're male chauvinist.
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  They don't want to get beat by a girl.
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  Now, I don't want to get you involved in this, but I believe,
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  and like I said, I just want you to respond to what I'm saying.
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  I believe that you know it's harder for them to wreck you
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  because if they do try to wreck you, they're going to knock out
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  a tow link. Maybe they can body slam you.
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  The videos are just unbelievable out there of you getting wrecked
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  or turned in NASCAR. What is your thought on my take?
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  So I do agree with you and that's something when we were,
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  we were kind of doing a me and chase.
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  By we, I mean me and Chase and we were kind of doing a compare
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  and contrast like why do I think I would be better suited on the
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  open well side of things? Well, first of all, I feel like
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  I'm, I used to be super aggressive in my racing like
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  back in the K&N days. And then I kind of shifted that
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  a little bit so you can't be as aggressive, I feel like.
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  And once you start getting on a mile and a halfs and stuff, and
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  especially in the Truck Series, like you cannot damage the body
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  of those trucks. Like you are screwed if you get
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  any damage on it. Just the way they're so reliant
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  on the downforce inside force. So I definitely tamed it back
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  and I think I did too much for sure, like I was too cautious.
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  But also that comes into play with my first year in trucks.
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  I had no practice, no qualifying right into the race.
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  And like one at all new tracks I've never been to like 90% of
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  the tracks I had never been to before.
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  And so that was something that like, I feel like I definitely
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  like eased into it and maybe a little too much to where I lost
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  that aggressive ability in my driving to where like I was OK
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  with moving people and doing this and doing that, but it's
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  more so me trying to get comfortable.
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  So I, I think I never in the Truck Series found a good
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  balance of that. But in the Indian X stuff like
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  obviously you can't really touch each other like it's or else if
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  you could damage your front wing, like you're done, your
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  race is practically over. And so that's something for me
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  that I'm like, OK, it's like, I like that side of it.
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  I think that'll be better suited for me and like how I changed as
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  a driver over time. I saw something really
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  interesting. Somebody just brought up and I
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  and I thought, wow, that is a good point.
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  The ratings are really low in IndyCar and when I talked to
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  Michael Andretti right here on Kenny Conversation, it was a
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  good one and it, it made World News because everybody was
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  quoting Michael Andretti. I believe IndyCar needs help
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  and, and there's always controversy on, you know, how
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  Jay Fry or Rodger Penske are going to promote the sport.
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  So since I've explained that to everybody out there and I
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  believe you know where I'm going with this on Instagram and, and
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  social media is the way we do a lot of things now.
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  The IndyCar Series has 682,000 followers, you have 1.6 million.
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  You're 2 times bigger then all of IndyCar and and those are the
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  people that follow IndyCar. Have you heard any talk about
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  you? And, and I don't want you to
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  brag on yourself. I don't I'm not asking that type
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  of question. I'm just saying it has there
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  been talk about, hey, Haley can help?
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  Us, yeah. I mean, like even when I started
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  out in the NASCAR stuff and NASCAR on Instagram had the same
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  amount of followers that I did. They've definitely grown quite a
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  bit the last 3-4 years for sure. But I'm talking about like when
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  I was headed into trucks, so like that kind of 2020-2021
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  time. And they've definitely grown a
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  lot. But on the IndyCar side of
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  things, I think I've don't quote me on this, but I saw an article
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  not too long ago, probably a week or two ago about them
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  allotting a lot more of their budget throughout the year to
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  the marketing side of things to help that, which I thought was
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  super cool, especially with me coming into it and saying that
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  like, OK, cool, they're going to be pushing the marketing side of
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  things harder from their side. And then also with the following
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  that I have, obviously like it's no, no, they can't deny that.
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  Like I do have a following. So I do bring eyes to it.
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  So it's what's nice for me though, after talking to a lot
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  of the marketing people on the IndyCar side is they're very
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  welcoming and they want to they want to work with me, they want
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  to help and they want. And I like that side of things
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  where they try to make me feel like, Hey, how can we help you?
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  Because obviously like there's going to be some value for them.
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  Like my first year of trucks, not many.
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  And I got, I asked around for like the, the, what's it called,
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  the analytics, TV analytics, because I wanted to see, I was
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  just curious. I was like, do you think trucks,
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  like back when I started racing it, have gotten more views?
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  So obviously NASCAR's views, a lot of them were on a big
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  decline for a while. I don't know if it's back up or
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  not, but I was looking at the TV ratings and from the moment I
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  got into the Truck Series, it was up 20%.
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  So and it was stayed like that. So I was like, you know what,
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  that's that's valuable for me selling sponsors and that's why
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  I did it and checked it out. But that's just something that I
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  feel like I could be of value to them, but also they're of value
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  to me because they're series like I, I like it.
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  I like being a part of it and I'm excited to be a part of it.
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  I'm never going to apologize for my dad being a great race car
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  driver and my brother Rusty and Mike and my mom ran Powder
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  Puffs. I don't think you should ever
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  apologize for being a Deegan. Your dad set the stage and you
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  and your brother, your your family dynamic is awesome.
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  I think you all play off of each other equally.
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  I see you with with your brother.
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  I see how hard he works. I see how hard you work.
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  Are you married yet? Not yet.
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  We're engaged. Yeah, that's what I was
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  thinking. But I.
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  Mean then so I actually get this a lot.
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  Everyone barely wear my ring. Like I'm always working on stuff
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  like I'm working on the go Kart at the house, like I'll be out
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  like mowing the lawn and stuff. So like I'm constantly working
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  with my hands. So I don't wear it that often.
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  If we go to like dinner, I'll wear it and stuff.
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  It's more like an accessory, but like I am gonna knock the
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  diamond off right off of it if I wear it all the time.
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  But so everyone in interrogates me.
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  Is she still engaged and stuff on Instagram?
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  Because like my race photos, I'm not going to wear under my
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  gloves. Yeah, And, and I was, I'm really
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  glad you said that. That was a surprise for me.
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  And I think where I was going is, you know, when you and I
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  were in the SRX series, we were, you know, at the Lucas Oil
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  Speedway up there in Wheatland. And I and I saw you really
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  intensely conversing with your fiance and I didn't really know
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  much about him. I'm like, boy, Haley, really,
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  you know, and I didn't realize what a great race car driver he
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  was. I just didn't know.
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  And then I see you guys out there at Millbridge and him
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  winning races. But that's my question, is this
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  whole dynamic of the Deegan's and your fiance?
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  You guys are flat ass racers. Yeah, for sure.
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  I mean, that's all we talked about.
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  Like we don't own cable TV. We have every single racing
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  network at the house, like, yeah.
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  Me. Too fast 4 you got flow like and
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  that's all we have on all the time.
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  And he's a dirt racer at heart. That's what he grew up doing and
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  he he's one of the most talented drivers I've ever seen that
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  never got an opportunity past ARCA.
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  And that's just how racing is. Racing is money.
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  That's what it is. Like it as much as people like
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  don't want to admit it or like kind of fake it, that it's not
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  like you got to go have money, like whether it's sponsor money
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  or family money, whatever it is. And he wasn't able to make it
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  any further because of that. But it's great for me because I
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  got a great driver coach and he's really, really good at I
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  racing, which is something that like I wanted to start utilizing
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  more this last year or so. And so I have him go on my
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  simulator, set a fast lap and I just try to chase it down.
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  We look at the data and the telemetry and try to compare and
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  contrast like, OK, you're driving in deeper here.
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  Oh, you're backing up your corner here.
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  So that helps me out a lot. I really like that and and I
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  listened to what you said earlier about joining HMD, about
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  the telemetry and being able to see how you can be better.
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  Something fun that I just noticed and if I'm wrong just
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  say it our your your brother is number 38 and did I see on your
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  IndyCar NXT? Are you 38 too?
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  Yeah, so that's the thing I I really like about the side of
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  things. So my that's kind of like our
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  family number. My dad was 38 growing up.
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  He was his whole life. He still like runs that number
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  on everything even though he doesn't race a whole lot
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  anymore. But 38's kind of our family
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  number. My little brother's 38.
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  I was when I started racing the off road stuff growing up.
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  But like my Microsprints 38 like so when they told me I'm like,
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  hey, do you guys own the numbers?
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  How does this work with like points and stuff?
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  They're Oh no, if the number is available, you can choose any
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  number you want. I was like, sign me up before
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  the contract was even done. I was like.
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  Makes you feel good doesn't. I've always been 36 because my
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  dad was years ago. Just put you at home, doesn't
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  it? Yeah, it does.
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  And it's cool for me because when it comes to the merchandise
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  side of things that I can have that family number because
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  that's a huge point for me. I am someone who runs strictly
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  off sponsor money. I am.
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  If I my sponsor money gets cut, I'm done.
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  Like that's just how it is. So all my sponsor money gets
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  allied to the racing side of things.
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  Well, I still got to keep my lights on, like I still got
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  bills to pay a mortgage. And so that's on that side of
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  things. The merchandise and social media
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  side, that's where I utilize that.
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  Haley, I think you're really ahead of a lot of kids your age
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  because it's refreshing because I tell everybody all the time, I
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  say, look, I had to get my own sponsors to stay in the game and
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  I did. I like it that you're saying,
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  hey, look, some people hide it. They don't talk about it.
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  But I mean, that's the way it is.
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  Whether you send your kid, you know, to a college to get in
• 17:07
  with the New York Yankees and baseball, the World Series, the
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  playoffs are going right now. You know, it is a great story if
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  you're poor and you make it and, you know, and I like that.
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  I mean, your dad had nothing. His story's unbelievable.
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  I had nothing. You know, this is life, but I
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  don't think we judge ourselves. So thank you for just flat ass
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  admitting hey, I need sponsor, you know money.
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  OK, I'm going to get real technical with you.
• 17:39
  I was text this somebody very big in the industry.
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  I admire it was a man and he has a daughter that races or did
• 17:50
  race. So you know where I'm going with
• 17:52
  this and he and he sent me something really cool.
• 17:56
  So in IndyCar, OK, IndyCar, this is the Indianapolis 500 type
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  cars. The next step up.
• 18:04
  He said that he was a little worried about your leg strength
• 18:09
  and and this is just a conversation.
• 18:11
  Just don't you know, we're just this is.
• 18:12
  Good. OK, I don't get offended.
• 18:14
  Easy, Kenny. Yeah, yeah.
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  So he he said great Breakers in the big time Indycars, Laguna
• 18:22
  Beach, all that street courses, they were able to push down on
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  the break 1200 lbs. Said Story has it the Jimmie
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  Johnson, the great seven time, eight time champion in NASCAR
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  was only able to push 800 lbs. Danica was able to get get to
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  1100 lbs. Have you heard about this
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  phenomenon? So I don't know if it's
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  different compared to the Indy Next stuff, which Indy Next was
• 18:53
  previously named Indy Lights. That was a previous name of the
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  series. So in the Indy Next stuff, I'm
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  not sure how comparable it is to the like that side of things,
• 19:03
  IndyCar side of things, because your goal when I was sat in the
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  car to do the brake pressure side of things is to get 1200 on
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  front PSI. So like I was able to do that
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  and stuff. So I don't know if that's a
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  comparable deal because it's about 2000 total brake pressure
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  including front and rear. So about 1200 front, 800 rear,
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  because you do run quite a bit more front brake.
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  So I don't know if that's comparable in that sense.
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  I've never tried hitting the brake pedal in IndyCar before.
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  So when I do that, I can get back to you.
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  But I think that any next cars are a little bit different.
• 19:32
  Yeah, I think you work out. I see your videos.
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  I think you're the right person for the job.
• 19:38
  Bless you, thank you. But but I believe you know that
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  is you just that that's just a talking point.
• 19:46
  I wanted to share that with you. I thought and I mulled around
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  for like 4 days. Should I talk with her?
• 19:50
  But but it's interesting. No, and the fitness side of
• 19:53
  things is something that really attracted me to the IndyCar side
• 19:57
  because I'm super I love fitness like I I work out every single
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  day and I love that side of things.
• 20:02
  And I think that's instilled from the Moto world.
• 20:05
  So the two wheel side and because they train every single
• 20:08
  day, training is. It's a huge part, I'd say 60% of
• 20:11
  their racing. And so I like that that's
• 20:14
  actually utilized where NASCAR. It's not like in NASCAR, you
• 20:18
  don't have to be in shape in any sort of form.
• 20:20
  As much as people want to say, oh, it's hot, it's hot.
• 20:23
  You have air conditioning in a cool suit, calm down.
• 20:25
  Like it's not. You've seen the movie, Yeah.
• 20:29
  Yeah, like it was very dramatic in that sense on the NASCAR
• 20:33
  side, like the Indycars side. Like it's hard, like no power
• 20:36
  steering, like obviously your legs have to be super strong.
• 20:40
  You have all this air pushing you back, pushing your arms
• 20:43
  down, feel like your arms want to RIP down off the wheel.
• 20:46
  And that's just how it is. So you got to work on your
• 20:48
  fitness side of things to combat that.
• 20:50
  And everyone that I've talked to said the more fit you are, the
• 20:52
  faster you will go. And just because your inputs can
• 20:55
  be faster, like you are pushing on the wheel and it is like when
• 20:59
  you have a lot of downforce like that, it is tough.
• 21:01
  So that's why I like I like being able to utilize the
• 21:04
  fitness side of things. I was always a leg workout
• 21:06
  person, like my whole life, leg cardio.
• 21:09
  And I think just because like the NASCAR stuff didn't require
• 21:12
  much fitness. So it wasn't like, oh, I have to
• 21:14
  work on this specific muscle group.
• 21:16
  And I always just like like hitting like workouts.
• 21:19
  And then now I've been hitting arm workouts like quite a bit.
• 21:22
  I've definitely like flipped the rolls just to get strong, my
• 21:25
  upper body stronger because obviously that's utilized a lot.
• 21:28
  Yeah, that is, that is really good stuff right there.
• 21:32
  When I when I met Ricky Carmichael, a great, you know,
• 21:36
  motorcycle racer, one thing I noticed about Ricky was his size
• 21:40
  were like tree Trump's. Yeah.
• 21:41
  Yeah, yeah. I'm like this guy could just
• 21:44
  grab the bike and lift it up with his two legs.
• 21:46
  And so I think that from what I'm hearing from the IndyCar
• 21:49
  side for Rd. racing, we're talking Rd. racing everybody,
• 21:53
  not so much over racing, but the road racing.
• 21:56
  Well, good stuff. I want to turn a little bit to,
• 22:01
  I like to defend you. That's just my guilty pleasure,
• 22:05
  so. It's a dangerous Rd.
• 22:07
  Kenny. It's.
• 22:08
  A Yeah, I know, I know. I know my side is not.
• 22:11
  Not if you want to be publicly liked.
• 22:14
  It's not the side to be. Yeah, I'm.
• 22:15
  At that point where you know, whatever I I hear that, that the
• 22:18
  new thing is I'm bringing receipts.
• 22:20
  How's that? That's good.
• 22:21
  You got you got to. Sometimes people just blindly
• 22:24
  follow stuff. So here I go and we're, we're
• 22:28
  getting to the end here because this is catching up with Haley.
• 22:30
  We already know your life story. Once again, everybody go back to
• 22:33
  Kenny conversation. The first one, we've documented
• 22:36
  everything about Haley. We are catching up with Haley.
• 22:39
  So we're going to kind of end like this a little bit.
• 22:43
  The Herminator did a little job. And I went back and I looked at
• 22:47
  that #15 NASCAR Xfinity car that you used to drive the last three
• 22:52
  races, they have finished 27th, 27th and 33rd.
• 22:59
  When you, when you see those finishes in your, in your heart,
• 23:05
  are you kind of like that was close, you know, because you
• 23:09
  know, obviously it was very public that, you know, they
• 23:12
  wanted to try another driver for a week or two.
• 23:15
  And of course, I called Bulletin on it right away and it came out
• 23:19
  with that right away. What is your thought when you
• 23:22
  see, you know, even Dale Junior defended you?
• 23:26
  That was big. When I just tell you when, when
• 23:29
  that car runs the way it runs, What do you think?
• 23:33
  I mean, I think there's some sort of reassurance in it of
• 23:39
  everything, which I won't talk about it too much.
• 23:42
  No, I don't want you to get in. Trouble stuff, but I think
• 23:45
  there's some sort of reassurance.
• 23:47
  I can't tell you how many nights like I when flew back on the
• 23:52
  team planes like wanting to just breakdown crying and I'm not a
• 23:55
  crier, like I'm a pissed off crier.
• 23:57
  Like if I'm crying, it's because I'm mad.
• 24:00
  Like how many nights I just wanted to like beat my head
• 24:03
  against the wall, like didn't know what to do because like
• 24:06
  stuff that was out of my control.
• 24:08
  You know, that's what I would be expecting.
• 24:10
  I just wanted to, I more so wanted to put that up there for
• 24:14
  everybody. It was definitely like I had a
• 24:17
  lot of weight on my shoulders for sure like this this year,
• 24:20
  like it was it was tough and I feel like it was a big burden
• 24:25
  and now like to have something so new and fresh in the ending
• 24:29
  next side. And I think it was NASCAR as a
• 24:32
  whole. Like yes, it is gruesome.
• 24:34
  I I don't know how those crew guys do it like it that many
• 24:37
  weekends out of the year, like even the Xfinity Series, 33
• 24:41
  weekends out of the year is crazy because these guys are
• 24:44
  flying back on Saturday nights. If we're racing on the West
• 24:47
  Coast, you are not getting home till about 5:00 in the morning
• 24:50
  on Sunday. You have your Sunday to recoup,
• 24:53
  recoup and get your life together and then you're back
• 24:56
  working on Monday at like 7:00 AM.
• 24:58
  Yeah. And I and, and of course I raced
• 25:01
  the NASCAR my whole life and to this day, all my friends work
• 25:04
  there. I love NASCAR just like you do.
• 25:06
  But but, but it is such a long, grueling year.
• 25:11
  Oh yeah, that was another selling point for me on the
• 25:13
  indie side is like I am going to have time to work on myself
• 25:16
  throughout the year. And because the races, there's
• 25:19
  only 14 races throughout the whole season, it's a little bit
• 25:22
  tighter. Doesn't start till March, ends
• 25:24
  in the end of August I believe so.
• 25:26
  And then something else with that is the testing.
• 25:29
  This is like such a huge point for me.
• 25:32
  I am a slow learner, but I can figure it out and I've always
• 25:37
  been like that in racing. I don't I'm not the one going to
• 25:39
  go out there and make I'm saying QuickTime lap one might jump
• 25:42
  this thing. Like I'm not like that.
• 25:44
  I don't like being like that. I like building up to stuff and
• 25:47
  the testing side of things and the Indian X side I'm going to
• 25:50
  get We did the math on it. So you got to look at this in
• 25:53
  the broad perspective. By we I mean Chase did the math
• 25:56
  on it. And so my first year of tracks,
• 25:59
  I got no practice. My second year of trucks, we got
• 26:02
  the 20th. It's like the 15 to 25 minute
• 26:04
  practice. Let's rough it at 20 minutes.
• 26:08
  There's some tracks that like Atlanta, you get no practice.
• 26:11
  Super Speedway is no practice. And then there's like 55 minutes
• 26:15
  on road courses. So those tally each other out to
• 26:18
  still about 20 minutes and I will have more seat time off
• 26:23
  just the test days, like the usable track time in any next
• 26:26
  series than I did in practice. My whole truck and expended
• 26:31
  crew. Yeah, before the season even
• 26:33
  starts. You, you were a victim of that
• 26:35
  COVID deal a little bit. Big victim of it.
• 26:39
  Yeah, because of COVID, don't nobody go around, just jump in
• 26:42
  your car and yeah, that and, and you're and you're coming from,
• 26:47
  you know, different type of racing.
• 26:48
  That's it. You know, I can remember, let's
• 26:51
  just use Ricky Carmichael. I mean, now that, you know, that
• 26:54
  your family is, you know, big and motocrossing.
• 26:57
  I, I watched Ricky, you know, you just don't jump into a car
• 27:01
  with no practice. No.
• 27:03
  Yeah. And I didn't foresee and like,
• 27:05
  that's why I feel like in the next side was the right choice
• 27:08
  for me is I didn't foresee it getting any better in NASCAR.
• 27:11
  I need data. I need practice.
• 27:13
  I'm a slow learner as a racer, like that's just how I am.
• 27:16
  It takes me a little bit of time, but if I have those
• 27:18
  resources I can figure it out. You turned this negative into a
• 27:24
  positive really quick. Just just a matter of months.
• 27:29
  At what point? At what point?
• 27:31
  I mean, OK, so the day that the team in NASCAR, they said, OK,
• 27:36
  we want to try another driver. How long did it take you to
• 27:39
  figure out you know what you wanted to go for?
• 27:44
  Or or were you lost in translation for months?
• 27:47
  I mean, I would say there was probably a two week period where
• 27:51
  it was kind of like nothing, just kind of stagnant.
• 27:54
  And then it's funny how this all came about because like I'm, I'm
• 27:57
  friends with quite a few of the IndyCar drivers just from
• 28:00
  meeting them in the SRX series. Like so many of those guys are
• 28:04
  so nice and so cool. And I went to actually, we were
• 28:08
  sitting on the couch, me and Chase, and we were just talking
• 28:10
  about it because I had a couple options of what to do.
• 28:13
  Like I could have gone back to trucks.
• 28:15
  Like that wasn't out of the equation.
• 28:18
  Like I have the enough sponsor money to go do that, but I
• 28:22
  wanted something. What's going to keep me in
• 28:23
  racing for the next 10 years? I want a career out of this.
• 28:26
  And that's and like even my dad, he's talked to me on the phone
• 28:30
  and he was like, it doesn't have to be NASCAR.
• 28:32
  And like I just don't think I ever thought differently where I
• 28:35
  was like, oh man, it has like it has to be NASCAR.
• 28:37
  I'm not thinking about anything else.
• 28:39
  And that's when we were sitting on the couch, me a Chase and
• 28:41
  he's like, what about IndyCar? And he's like, you love Rd.
• 28:45
  course racing. You always do good on mile and a
• 28:48
  half tracks, high grip tracks. You did good in the MSA stuff.
• 28:51
  And he's like, why not Indy, the open well side of things?
• 28:54
  And I was like, I don't know, like that's so different.
• 28:57
  And so that's why I did that F3 test was to try it out to that
• 29:01
  was the decision maker of like, OK, I'm going to do this or I'm
• 29:03
  not. Yeah, I really like that.
• 29:06
  I'm a girl dad. I have three daughters.
• 29:08
  I I think your dad said that because he tired of the boys
• 29:12
  wreck. You know, me and your dad talked
• 29:13
  and and he said it. I don't think NASCAR, it's, I
• 29:17
  say this sadly, I don't think NASCAR is ready to get their ass
• 29:21
  beat by girls. That's just my opinion.
• 29:25
  Haley, listen, you've been wonderful.
• 29:30
  What else do you have to say before we let you go?
• 29:32
  I. Don't know.
• 29:33
  I'm excited. Like it's definitely a very
• 29:35
  exciting chapter in my life. Like this is a whole new step
• 29:37
  for me. I'm going to be moving part time
• 29:40
  out to Indy like I. I can't move full time though
• 29:43
  because I will not spend winters in India.
• 29:45
  Refuse season. Where are you living now?
• 29:49
  I'm in North Carolina, yeah, my kind of where all the race teams
• 29:52
  are. But like, I don't know, it's a
• 29:55
  it's a big change for me and I'm excited for.
• 29:57
  I feel like I've been needing a change.
• 29:59
  Yeah, well, we're celebrating you right now because listen up
• 30:03
  everybody. She took she took a negative and
• 30:06
  within months she's turning into a positive a great future to
• 30:10
  look for My my Mama said something to one of my best
• 30:14
  friends. He was complaining about
• 30:15
  something being come to and she goes all this is great.
• 30:17
  You have something look forward to so so congratulations, Haley.
• 30:22
  Thank you so much for coming on, Kenny Conversation, catching up
• 30:26
  with Haley Deegan. We appreciate you coming on.
• 30:29
  Thank you, I appreciate it. All right, everybody, that's it.
• 30:32
  Remember, you can catch Kenny conversation with Haley Deegan
• 30:36
  on iTunes or Spotify. Until the next show.
• 30:40
  We'll see you next time.